Improvement in wood-lathes



limiten Sra-'res Parent" @einen LUCIUS H. DVVELLEY, OF lDORCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS.

y IMPROVEMENT IN WOOD-LTHES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent Nc. 103,033, dated May 17, 1570; antedaied May 9', 1870.

the art to practice it.

This invention relates to certain novel constructions, combinations, and arrangements,

which are described and set forth in this speci.- tication, andare shown in the accompanying drawings, by which I producea machine which iscapable of receiving material in an elongated form-such, forexamplaas bars or strips of wood-and severing from such bars or stripsshort pieces', which are formed in and by the machine into ornamental or useful shapes, the operations being automatic after the material is once seized upon by the mechanism.

The machine shownin the drawings as an 'illustration of an embodiment of my invention is arranged to' produce from long strips vof wood of rectangular cross-section such spools as common sewing-,threads are wound upon for `sale in the market.

Figure 1 is a plan of the machine; Fig. 2, a rear elevation; Fig. 3, a front elevation, and Figs.4 and 5 elevations of the ends of-the machine.

The bars of material are laid in `a guidetrough, a, by hand; or they may be presented or laid therein from abnndle or pile by a suitable automatically-operating vmechanism not herein described, or shown in the drawings.

- The ends of said bars, being presented to suitable feeding-rolls, b b, rotated in the direction indicated thereon, present and carry the strips to and thronghya hollow cutter-carrying arhor, c, by which the bars are reduced to cylindrical form, and are, carried onward through guides d d, each one of which is preferably made in halves kept together bythe action of springs or Weights, which, by yielding, prevent the cylindrical bars from binding or be-A coming jam-med in cases Where they are notquite straight. The feeding operation is made continuous by introducing bar afterbar with their ends abutting. The bars are fed onward toward a wheel, c, which is made to rotate in the direction indicated, cavities or openings beingmade inthe wheel', as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, to receive pieces cut off from the bars by the saw or cutter f. The cutter f operates between the end of one guide, d, and the adjacent end `of a spring-holder, g, which is attached to the stationary part of said guide d, the function of saidholder g being to receive and support the pieces cut `oft' from the cylindrical bars, and to guide them into the'openings in wheel e, into which they are pushed by the advanceof the material operated on by the feed-Wheels b b. feed-wheels b bis intermittent, as is also the movement of the carrying-wheel e and the cut-y ter f, and said movements are more or less directly effected from the constantly-rotating shaft h, a cam, t', on which and a co-operating spring works the paWl-carrying leverj to turn a ratchet-wheel on the shaft ol" one of the feedwheels, the shafts of said feed-Wheels being geared directly together. The cutter fis hung in a vibrating piece, 7c, which is moved by cam Z anda co-operating spring, and the carryingwheel c is worked from cam m by a pawl operating a ratchet-Wheel on the shaft of wheel@ through the medium of levers n o, link p, and a spring. (Best seen in Fig. 4.) Rapid rotation is given to the hollow cutter-carrying arbor c and to the cutter or saw f by means of belting. (Not shown.)

As the short cylinders or blanks of wood or other material are fed into the openings in the wheel e, they are carried to any desirable location, where they are clamped one after the other by the action of a piece on lever g, which lever is actuated by cam r and a co-operating spring, the clamping taking place While the wheel e is at rest, the clamping or gripping action on the blanks carried by wheel e being released at such times as the wheel is moving. Vheu the wheel e is lockedv and oneof the blanks is clamped therein, an arbor provided with a boring-tool, s, anda facingcutter, t, is moved by means of lever u and cam V@"to bore and face one end of the clamped blank, the bored hole therein being immediately afterward reained by reamei1 w, and the other end of the blank being faced by cutter f The movement of thek x, said reamer w andcutter xbeing carriedby l and receiver g is made like a pair-ofspringan arbor, which is moved by the levery and cam z. The arbors carrying the said cutters and the boring and reaming tools are rapidly rotated by means of belting. (Not shown.)

In running the machine it is evident that two short cylindrical pieces, each less in length than the regular blanks, will generally be formed by the abuital of two long bars of material, and will both be fed at the same time into one of the openings of the conveyingwheel e. It is important to the free and continuous working of the machine that the shorter, or at least one, of these pieces Abe removed from the wheel before they are brought to the act-ion of the boring, reaming, or facing tools, as the hold of the gripper upon twopieces at the same time might not in all cases prevent one being wrested from the clamping action ofthe gripper by one of the tools, in which case, being revolved with the tool, the revolving short piece might either clog the machine or prevent the proper action ot' the tools on succeeding blanks of 4 the regular length. Vhenever one of such abutting short pieces A is very much shorter than the other, itis evident that it may drop'from the wheel by its own weight; but in order to insure the removal of one of them in all cases plungers c" b are attached to the carriages in which the above-mentioned arbors are mounted, which carry the boring and reaming tools s and w,

- on which levers a and y act, the function of said plungers being to move the blanks endwise in the openings back and forth, so that when two pieces are in one opening, the shorter or one ot' them may be removed from the wheel. It is evident thatv neither of the two pieces formed by the abuttal of two long bars will be of any use to form a iinished article, the design of the plungers being simply to get rid of the short pieces, or one of each pair, without stopping or clogging the machine.

Instead ot' the plungers, other devices could be employed to give the proper endwise motion to the blanks, or by giving a proper bevel to a part ot' the opening in the wheel one or both of the pieces would fall from the wheel before the opening into which they were fed is brought opposite to the boring or lacing tool. The length-ot' the regular blanks is considerably greater than the thickness of the wheel, inorder to allow the ends to be faced without danger ot' bringing the facing-tool into contact with the wheel.

To properly locate the blanks in the wheel ebefore they are clamped, bored, reamed, and

end-faced, pieces c c are so located and ar-.

ranged that, as the wheel e in moving brings the blanks ot' material into contact with said pieces cf c, the blanks are moved endwise in wheel e from the position in which they are left by the'action ofthe plungers c or b' and are left projecting at both ends beyond the sides ofthe wheel, as maybe desired. Instead of the pieces c c', plungers similar to those described or rollers could be used. The guide` nippers, opening below, so that as wheel e turns the jaws ofthe receiver g will open and allow any piece of the material to be carried downward, if for any reason such piece should be left partially in one ofthe openings iu wheel c, and partially in said guide. thus preventing breakage of the machine, and allowing the movement of such misplaced piece ol" material to a location where the attendant can readily remove it, the snap of the spring-jaws upon releasing such piece warning the operator to attend to irregularity in the working of the machine.

'In a convenient location beyond the place where the short pieces of material are clamped and end-faced is the mechanism by which said pieces are transferred from the carryingwheel e, and are rapidly rotated on their axes, subject to the action of a suitable cutting tool or tools, by which any desired iinished shape is given to the pieces. On a support, d', located on the main bed e', is arranged a sliding earriage, f, which is made to move back and forth at suitable intervals by the action of cam g through the medium of lever IL and a link of peculiar construction, to be described hereinafter. This carriage is provided with a centering-arbor, t, which is in line with the axis of one ofthe openings in wheel c, when said wheel is locked by the action of the piece on lever q, which clamps the short cylindrical pieces of material to be bored and end-faced, or either bored or end-faced. rlhe center, carried by the centering-arbor t, is of the same diameter with the hole bored in each blank, and as the arbor t" is advanced the center is pushed into said hole, there beinga device arranged to keep the short cylinder from being forced out of the carrying-wheel prematurely. This device consists of a pair ot' levers, jj, pivoted near the centers of their length to a piece iixed to the support d', the lower ends of said levers being kept closed together by a spring acting on the upper ends. These levers j j', being located at the side of the wheel opposite that where the arbor t is located, hold the perforated blank in' the wheel c until the enlargement of said arbor presses said blank so hard against the sides of levers jj (which are beveled on the side receiving the pressure) as to cause the beveled ends to spring apart, and then the said blank is carried on the centering-arbor, outof the opening in wheel e, and toward and upon the spurred or lluted center k', which is made to rotate rapidly by means ofa belt, (not shown,) said live center k being mounted in a suitable arbor arranged in bearings in a well-known manner, as shown in lthe drawings. The short cylinder being fairly iixed on and between centers and in rapid rotation, a cutting-tool, Z', of any suitable shape, is madeto advanceinto contact with the rotating body, to be shaped by the tool. Y

The tool-holderp' is mounted on' a lever, n', which is worked at the proper intervals by the cam m', and a cooperating spring or wei gh i shown.

having retreated from the work, the sliding carriagef draws away from the wheel e, the

l levers j'j preventing the finished article from following, andthe piece q acting to strip the finished article from' the live center 7c. The stripper q isatt-ached to a rod, r', borne by the carriage ff, there being ahead on said rod, byV which the stripper is drawn against the lfinished article, to cause its detachment from thelive center. The movement of the carriage f is in excess of the movement of t-he stripper,

which is checked by coming into contact with one of the bearings of the live-center spindle, the movement of the stripper q away from the work being caused by the action ofone of the vertical bars of carriage f on the rod r, through the medium of a spring placed against a stop on the rod r', which spring yields as soon as the stripper is checked, and thus allows the carriage f to complete lits full movement.-

The openings near the periphery of the earrying-wheel e in the present illustrations are iirst made cylindrical and of the desired size, and besides being slotted outward to form an opening for the gripper are also slotted inward toward the center of wheel e, which, by

present-ing three linesof bearing, prevent any liability of yielding materiallike wood being i crushed or split in the openings by the pressure of the clamp.

It is not necessary, how. ever, that the openings in the wheel should be of the precise form and construction herein The inner slots may be omitted and the three lines or surfaces of bearing on the blank be still secured by having two of them on the end of the gripper. Neither do I wish to confine myself' to circular openings in the wheel, as it is evident that they may be made square, triangular, oval, orindeed in any other shape which will afford a rmbearing or bearings for the blanks to be pressed against. I prefer, however, the openings made as shown in the drawings, as they are easy of construction and gi-tisfactory in action.

The link which connects lever h with the sliding carriage f is made of two plates, t't, eachhaving a pivot-point 1n each end, which points tit in countersinks made inthe pieces i to be connected, and the plates are drawn toward each other bypneor-more bolts, s. placed between the pivot-points, so that b y taking out the bolt the parts are quickly disconnected, and by tightening the bolt all wear of the pivots is compensated for, and lost motion or backlash prevented. i

In describing mymachine it has been convenient to illustrate it by reference to its adaptation for the manufacture of a specific article; but it is capable by slight changes of producing many different articles of different forms and of different materials.

I have also, by way of mere illustration, :referred to special devices shown in the drawings as means for imparting the proper times and distances of movement to the instrumento .move tool Ztoand from its work. AThe cut- 'l talities directly operative on the material to ting-tool having performed its function andV `but this would be an unnecessary waste of time, as no time islost in this machine in rounding the stock, this work being done at the same time with. other parts of thework. The blank may also be severed from the bar by the vibrating cutter af'ter the end of the bar has been fedinto theY wheel; but I prefer cutting it off first, as shown in the drawings, as I am thereby enabled to save time by feeding forward the wheel while the vibrating cutter is severing a succeeding blank.

It is evident that the facing-knife may be removed from its stock when required, that theV boring and reaming bits may be removed when the work does not require them, and that these parts may be of different forms adapted to the different varieties of work.

I claimu 1.- The combination of an intermittent feeding device with a hollow cutter-carrying ardescribed.

3. The conveying-wheel e, made with openings, as described, to receive the blanks, as

and for the purpose Vset forth.

4. 'The stationary yielding receiver g, constructed and arranged to operate in conjunction with the carrier-wheel, substantially as described.

5. The combination of an intermittent feeding device, hollow cutter carrying arbor, guide, and circular cutter f,with a conveyingwheel, substantially as herein described.

6. In a wood-turning machine, the process herein described ot' first feeding forward and turning a bar to a cylindrical form, then severing from it short pieces or blanks by means of a vibrating or reciprocating` rotary cutter, and then pushing forward such severed pieces by means of end pressure of the automaticallyadvanced bar, into a revolving conveyer or transferrer.

7.- The combination of an intermittent feeding device, a. revolving cutter having also a reciprocating or vibrating motion, a hollow cutter-carrying arbor, stationary guide, and a conveying-wheel, substantially as set forth.

8. The combination of the intermittentlyoperating conveying-wheel, with the tools s, t, and w, constructed and arranged to operate substantially as described, and for the purpose specified.

9. The combination of the intermittently operating conveying-wheel with awheel checking or locking device, which also serves as :L `grip for the material operated upon, substantinlly as shown and described.

10. The method herein described of ziurok lnatfically removing from the series of blanks the short pieces formed at or by thejunctnre of two bars from which the blanks are made.

ll. The method herein described of adjnso ing the lateral position of the blanks While within the openings of the wheel by means of inclined `guides.

12. The combination of nn interlnittel'ltlyoperating conveyingwh eel with asliding,` centering-arbor, i', arranged to operate, substantinlly as described.

13. The combination ofthe arbor i with the resistingT and stripping` levers j 14. The combination of the arbor 'i'. the resisbing and stripping levers jj. and the con Veying-wheel, substantially is described.

j" with the stripper q by means of the headed rod r, and the spring thereon, arranged to operate substantially as set forth.

17. The combination, with :L revolving and vibrating cutter for severing the blanks from the bar, of the conveyor-wheel, the round center, the revolving spurred or chuck Center,

kand Jche autonmbiczrlly-inoved turning cutter i', substantial) y as shown and described.

LUCIUS H.l DWELLEY.

Witnesses:

J. B. CROSBY, C. WARREN BROWN. 

